The Battle of Camp Half-Blood
by tanner12391
Summary: Follow the story of Tanner Durst, a child of Ares. Follow his adventures as a demigod. I do not own PJO or HOO, but I do own Tanner and any other character I come up with. Placed after the Giant War. Rated T for possible swearing.
1. Chapter 1

Before I start my story, I should probably tell you a little about myself. My name is Tanner Durst, and I am in the sixth grade at twelve years old. I have green eyes and dark brown hair. I'm around five feet and six inches and weigh around one hundred and ten pounds. I have ADHD and dyslexia. This is the story of how I learned that I am not normal, however anyone could tell you that. I am very intelligent but somehow always manage to get into trouble. I've been kicked out of five foster homes in my life. That's right I'm an orphan (or so I thought). My brother and I had been living on the streets together for most of my life until I turned six and he was ten. My brother, Chris, disappeared without any trace. The burden that we had once shared together was now upon my shoulders. I was left to live on my own until I found St. Christina's. That was when my life was flipped upside down the first time. Now, here comes the second.

It all started earlier this morning at around two A.M. I had woken up. I don't know what had woken me up, but I had a strange feeling of looming danger. Slowly, I rose up and looked around. I didn't see anything, so I thought it was nothing. I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen though. I sat back up in my wooden bed and looked around the room. The foster home I was in at the time was called St. Christina's Foster Home and Church. It was a boy's only foster home, and as you can imagine made it kind of hard to get by. With all the bullying and things I was tempted to strangle some of them.

Anyways, as I looked around the room I shared with nine other boys and one of the staff, Mr. Gleeson. I was in the right hand bed closest to the door, the farthest away from Mr. Gleeson. Gleeson was a short, pudgy man with curly black hair and always wore some kind of footwear. At the time that was the only thing I had found weird about him, aside from the fact that he sometimes stared at me as if trying to figure me out. I usually just ignored him and went on my way.

Since I was closest to the door, I figured it was safe for me to get out of bed and walk around. When I woke up in the middle of the night I was never able to go back to sleep. I would sometimes wander the halls or sit in the church and make sure I was back in the room before anyone woke up to find me missing. I don't know how but I had never been caught before. I hated to walk around at this hour because at school later in the day I had a math test. That was soon however going to become the least of my worries.

I crept out of my bed and walked on the balls of my feet out into the empty halls. I had perfected the art of silent walking early on in my childhood. The stone floors made my bare feet cold but I just ignored it. The feeling of danger still clouded around me and I couldn't find any explanation. Did I mention that that's one of my pet peeves? I can't stand not knowing something. Especially when it could be something important like this. Whatever was causing the feeling wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to do a little investigating. I know it was stupid to go looking for the source but I was a twelve year old searching for answers. What were you going to do?

I decided that it was probably not a murderer so I walked toward the great hall. The great hall was the entrance to the foster home and also had a stair case leading upwards to the church. Inside the hall was an enormous open space. It usually was a little crowded in the day, but you have to remember that it was in the wee hours of the morning. I took a turn towards the stairs and started up them. I was glad to get off the stone floor and onto the carpeted steps. The staircase winded through a passage with exactly one hundred steps from start to beginning (I had a lot of free time). I stumbled a few times in the darkness of the passageway but always managed to catch myself before I hit the ground. Sometimes I loved my ADHD.

As I came into the church I saw the object that had caused my discomfort. In one of the church windows was a face. It looked like a twenty year old women's face. It had red, waist length hair and a fair skin tone. At the height the church windows were though, no normal human could make it up to them. As I got a better look at the creature I saw wings behind it with red feathers. That's how it was up here! But how did it get wings. Again I had no answers. I turned to run down the stairs and go wake someone up, but it seemed that the red angel had already thought of that. It rammed its feet into the window completely shattering it. Then I saw how: on its feet were wicked looking talons that were starting to make me uncomfortable. The shattering of the glass had made a loud noise, but I didn't know if it would be enough to wake anyone up. I hoped it would be because I didn't think that I could outrun that thing if it could fly, which it could. I was also unarmed so staying wasn't a favorable option either. Thankfully I heard a clopping downstairs that sounded like hooves on the stone floor. _Hooves? _I thought confused. Whatever, if it was help then I don't care what it was.

The clopping continued but was a little quieter due to the carpeted stairs. Eventually, I saw a shadowed figure in the doorway of the staircase. As it came forward, I could see that it was Mr. Gleeson. What really shocked me though was that he had no pants on. That wasn't what surprised me though. He had white fur all the way down his legs and where his feet should have been were hooves.

"Mr. Gleeson, are you part donkey or something?" I asked out of pure surprise.

"Donkey! No, I'm part goat. A satyr if you know your mythology!" He replied. All his reply did was raise more questions. I had heard of satyrs, but what did they have to do with anything? Why was Gleeson bringing up mythology? Confusion overtook my brain.

"Listen, the main reason I came is to help you. So stand back and watch!" He yelled. Then, he pulled out a club from God knows where and rushed the giant bird. I was sure that he was going to get cut to ribbons with the talons but he somehow managed to beat the beast with his wooden club. Feathers flew everywhere as he pounded the poor gigantic bird.

"Ow, ow ow ow! That hurts!" the bird said in voice that sounded oddly like a squawk. I couldn't remember when they made the discovery that birds could talk, but I guess that since this one has a human head that it possessed the ability.

"Too bad! Get out of here if you don't like it!" Gleeson yelled. The creature seemed to take his advice as it soon turned around and flew right back out the window. I don't know how the satyr or whatever did it but he managed to basically destroy the giant bird. "Now that that's out of the way, we should get out of here before they start coming," Gleeson said.

"Hang on. I want answers. What was that thing? What are you? What does mythology have to do with anything?" I asked him.

"Well, that thing was a harpy, I am a satyr, and mythology has to do with everything. Now, if that's all, hop on my back so we can go. I'll explain better when we are safe. It's not far."

"Where are we going?"

"Long Island," he replied, short and sweet.

"We're all the way in Manhattan! How are we supposed to get to Long Island from here?"

"I have ways. Now I told you, hop on! We need to get out of here fast. When we reach a hotel that we can stay the night at I'll explain better." Reluctantly I hopped onto his back piggy-back style. I didn't know if I should trust him but he did save me from a harpy or whatever.

"Hold on," he ordered. I tightened my grip just in time because he launched himself from the window that was broken. I started to scream as we started our descent, but quickly stopped as Gleeson landed on the ledge of a window that had been below us. He started hopping from window ledge to ledge until we safely landed at the bottom of the building on the sidewalk. Gleeson leaned down for me to get off and I did quickly, not wanting to go on another jumping spree.

"Are you a mountain goat?" I asked him seriously.

He chuckled, "Only partly." I guess that explained a lot. "Now, let's find a hotel that serves breakfast. Beating up monsters sure takes it out of you." I had to agree with him. Even though I had barely done anything the fright was enough to make me ravenous. Not to mention that the home had served that disgusting dinner of fish yesterday. They really need better cooks in that place.

Something caught in the corner of my eye. A light flickered on up in the church section of St. Christina's. I pointed at it and Mr. Gleeson nodded and motioned for me to follow him. He put pants and shoes on that he had been storing somewhere. I guess it was best not to draw attention to ourselves. I walked about two feet behind him as we trudged along the sidewalk looking for a suitable hotel.

And that brings me to my situation now. The two of us are checking into a hotel about three miles from St. Christina's. It took us two hours to find it, but I'm glad that it opened early or we would be left out on the streets. The man at the desk gave us our room key and sent us up to our room. Breakfast wasn't served until six o'clock so we had around an hour for an explanation. I fully intended to get one, too.

As Gleeson unlocked the door to room 202, I thought of the first question I was going to ask him when I could. As soon as we were both in the room and I had shut the door behind me, I stared at him expectantly.

"What?" he demanded.

"I think you owe me an explanation better than the one you first gave me," I replied. He sighed and sat on one of the two beds in the room. He patted the one across from him. I walked up and sat on it then turned my full attention towards Gleeson.

"Hold your questions until the end, okay. The easiest way to say this would be to tell you that the Greek Gods are real. You know, like Athena and Zeus? Well, they are still alive and you are the son of one of them and a mortal. However, since you were in the orphanage we don't know the gender of your godly parent. So, you'll just have to wait until the claim you. It shouldn't take long, considering that your twelve. As well as the Gods being alive, sadly, the monsters are too. That's what the harpy was. You demigods, so to speak, put out a scent that monsters can smell. They think you smell like a delicious meal. Don't ask me how but they do. As for the place I'm taking you, it's called Camp Half-Blood. It's a camp for people like you. You'll learn how to fight and control any powers you might have. It also has a magic border that will protect you. That's why the camp is the only safe place for demigods on Earth. Later on today, after we eat I'll have someone from the camp pick us up. For now, I think it should be time for breakfast," he hypothesized, finishing his explanation. I nodded, taking in all the new information.

"Okay, I think I understand. It's just a lot to take in at once," I said. He nodded in sympathy.

"You're taking it a lot better than some of the other demigods I've brought to camp. One daughter of Aphrodite started screaming and ran away from me. You'd think that if she was a demigod it would take me longer to catch her, but I had her in five seconds. Pathetic if you ask me. I'm pretty sure her name was Drew something," Gleeson said. I smiled at his story. "Come on kid let's get breakfast." I got up and followed Mr. Gleeson out the door. As soon as I was in the hallway I could smell our next meal. There were bacon and blueberry muffins. I'm sure Gleeson wouldn't be too happy about the bacon. You could already sense the negative energy coming off of him. He lightened up though after he made it to the dining room and saw the tray of muffins. He practically jumped with glee before running and grabbing a plateful. I chuckled at his antics.

Myself however, decided to grab a plate of bacon and a muffin with a cup of orange juice. I ate a little more mannerly than Gleeson, but not by much. I was absolutely starved and I felt that whatever happened next I was going to have to have my energy up for the rest of the day. Not long after we arrived, we were both full and ready to leave. I stood up and Gleeson followed. We went up to the room to find out how to contact the camp.

"Hey, Mr. Gleeson, how are you going to talk to them to get the camp to come get us?" I asked.

"Just watch, Tanner. This is really cool!" he replied excitedly. He took off one shoe, raised a hooved foot, and slammed it into the faucet in the bathroom. Mist shot out and sprayed in all directions. "Grab a lamp and bring it here," Gleeson ordered. I did, not knowing what he was going to do. I brought the lamp to him and he removed the cover. He plugged it in and the light bulb flared to life. The light formed a rainbow in the mist. Gleeson pulled a golden coin from his pocket and threw it into the mist where it sunk into midair, never to be seen again.

"Oh Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please except my offering. Show me Chiron, Camp Half-Blood." The mist shimmered and was replaced by an image of an old man with wiry brown hair and a shaggy beard. That wasn't the weird part though. The man was a white horse from the waist down.

"A centaur?" I asked Gleeson. He nodded.

"His name is Chiron. He's the activities director at camp. Chiron, I have the demigod from St. Christina's. Unknown heritage, don't even know the gender. As you know he was in foster care."

"Yes, I am aware of that. What is your location now? We'll send someone to pick you up," the man in the mist said.

"We are at the Henderson Hotel in lower Manhattan," Gleeson replied.

"Okay, Argus will be along to pick you up. He should be there in fifteen minutes. You know how fast he drives," the man said again. Gleeson nodded and swiped his hand through the mist, destroying the image.

"Okay, what was that?" I asked.

"We call that an Iris message. Iris, the Goddess of the Rainbow runs a service that way. The coin I threw in was a golden drachma. It's currency in Greece." I nodded, excepting his explanation. "Anyway, we have fifteen minutes to get checked out and meet Argus outside."

"Well come on so we can get checked out," I said. He followed me out the door and to the desk in the lobby. We checked out and headed outside, where the sun was just starting to come up. It was after all October, and it was only six thirty in the morning. It wasn't long until a black van that read "Delphi Strawberries" pulled up in front of us.

"That's our ride," Gleeson said before we climbed into the car. Then, we were off and on our way to Camp Half-Blood.


	2. Chapter 2

I had climbed into the back seat leaving Gleeson and our driver, Argus, in the front. I was fine until I got a good look at Argus. He had eyes all over his body. Creepy, isn't it? He also didn't talk much. I couldn't help but wonder if that was because he had eyes in his mouth as well.

We drove for around ten minutes until we reached a thin road that cut between the forest and sand dunes, which more than likely led to the beach. I'm guessing this is the road that Camp Half-Blood is located. It seems as if I was right because five minutes after turning on that road, we slowed to a stop. I looked at one of Argus's eyes. The look it had bothered me. It was a look I knew fairly well: panic.

"Get out of the car!" Gleeson yelled. I'm guessing his animal senses were tuned to danger. I wasn't going to argue. I opened the door and jumped out of the car. The others follow suit.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Another monster," Gleeson said while sniffing the air, "old and dangerous." His words didn't help settle my nerves. "Back away from the car," Gleeson ordered, panic and anxiety clear in his voice. We all moved away, and I'm glad we did, because a moment later the car was crushed. I slowly looked up. On top of the car was a lion the size of a pick-up truck.

"Is that the Nemean Lion?" I asked Gleeson. He nodded gravely. I could see him through the lion's gigantic legs. "It would probably be smart to run wouldn't it?" I asked sarcastically. Another nod before all three of us took off down the street. "How much farther is camp?"

"About a quarter of a mile. Hopefully we can survive. We don't have any weapons even," Gleeson complained. However, Argus came through for us. He pulled a knife out of his back pocket. It was bronze, and seemed to glow. "Celestial bronze, good for killing monsters," Gleeson mumbled. He ran over to Argus, grabbed the knife, and kept running beside us. "When we get close enough I'll try to hold it off. Right now it would do me in before the two of you could get to camp."

"No, you're not sacrificing yourself to save us. It's all of us or none," I said stubbornly.

"Yep, you're a demigod all right. All of them want to be heroes. Hard-headed I tell you," Gleeson said. I started to blush. He had described exactly what I had been doing. I just shook my head and kept running beside them. I looked behind us. The lion had not moved from the car, but its muscles were clenched. It was ready to pounce.

"Uh, guys-" I started to say, but was cut off from a shockwave tearing through the ground. The three of us flew through the air, and landed roughly on the blacktop road. Behind us, the lion had tried to pounce on us, but had fallen short by approximately two feet. _Two feet from my grave_ I thought. I scrambled into a sitting position. The Nemean Lion was stalking towards us. A glimmer in the air beside me caught my eye.

I realized that it was the knife. Gleeson had thrown it at the lion. Hope rose inside of me. Maybe, just maybe, the knife would wound the lion enough to slow it down so we could get away safely. It was not to be, though. The knife just bounced off the lion's fur with a _clank_.

"How could I forget about the Nemean Lion fur's defensive properties?" Gleeson asked himself in despair.

"Wait, its fur is like metal? It's invincible then?" I asked.

"Not exactly. The inside of its mouth is its only weakness," Gleeson answered.

"Oh," I said, my voice small. It seemed impossible that we could get anything inside its mouth to stab it with without getting bitten in half. My hopes for survival went down the drain. _We're so screwed_ I thought. The knife had just seemed to make the lion angry.

The lion kept was creeping towards us until it stood five yards away. Its muscles contracted again. It wouldn't miss this time.

It soared through the air faster than I thought possible. It was coming towards me. I guess he thought I was the tastiest meal. Gleeson was only a satyr, and Argus, if my suspicions were correct, was a monster too. Although, he was a friendly monster.

That left me, the demigod. The need for survival flared inside of me. I solidified my will and decided that I would not die here. At least I wouldn't go down without a fight.

As the lion pounced towards me, I never took my eyes if its dangerous claws. I made sure to position myself so that when the Nemean Lion landed, I would be in between its paws. If it was a normal lion, I would have been killed. However, this lion was large enough so that I could stand, while bending over, and not touch its underside. That's exactly what I did. I stood up and ran as fast as I could. I left from under the lion's belly from right below its butt, but I didn't care. I was fighting for my survival.

A faint glimmer caught my eye in the middle of the road about fifteen yards ahead of me. It was the knife. If I could get to it before the lion caught me I would have a fighting chance. I ran towards it with the lion roaring behind me. I soon had the knife in my reach. I brought my arm out and grasped the leather handle. I turned around and saw at least a thousand pounds of pure death flying at me.

What I did next was a blur. I rolled on my shoulder and stabbed upward. Even though the lion's fur was basically metal, I'm sure it at least annoyed the beast. After stabbing the thing I hurled myself out from under the lion. On my way out, I slashed one of its legs. Again there was a _clank_ but at least I was doing something. I was tired of running.

Slash, dive, kick, stab, and roll. Those motions seemed instinctive to me, almost as if I was born to fight monsters. Well, in a way I guess I was. The lion became angrier and angrier each time it would try to kill me and I kept on living. I noticed a red aura surrounding me. For some reason I knew it wouldn't hurt me. Finally, the lion decided to try for a killing blow. It pounced.

_Come at me you damn thing. I'm not scared of you. Come get some! _I thought. As the lion's mouth opened to wrap me in its snarling maul of teeth and bad breath, I plunged the knife hilt deep into the beast's gums. I was surprised as the lion disintegrated into golden dust and drifted away into the wind. All that was left was the pelt of lion fur. My instincts told me to take it. As my hand touched the pelt, it shrunk down into a brown, Carr Hart coat with black lining on the inside. I quickly put it on in the cold October morning. I was glad to find that it fit me.

"The Blessing of Ares," a voice said from behind me. I whirled around with the knife pointed at the new arrival. I swiftly lowered it after I recognized Chiron in all of his half-horse glory.

"What?" I asked him.

"The Blessing of Ares. It's a red aura that the Greek war God, Ares, sends down upon those who have shown bravery in battle. It makes the person completely invincible for a short time," he explained. I looked down at my clothes, except for the new coat. All of my other clothes had long scratches in them, and my jeans were basically shredded. You could see my boxers they were torn so badly.

"Is that what that was?" I asked. He was probably getting tired of all the questions. However, if he had been camp director for as long as Gleeson said he was, he was a Greek Mythology figure, then he was more than likely used to it by now.

"Yes, it was. It's weird though because Ares usually saves his blessings for his children." A feeling of hope spread through me. I might have just figured out who my dad is.

"So are you saying that Ares might be my dad?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," he replied. "If I had to guess, that's the god I would bet on being your father." I looked down at myself again. I did look light I had just fought in a war. My clothes torn, face and body dirty, and scrapes and bruises dotting my body. Right now, I could believe that I was the War God's son.

"How do we tell," I asked. I soon found my answer because a faint red glow came from over top of my head. I glanced upward and saw a holographic boar and spear.

"That's how you tell. Tanner Durst, you have just been claimed by Ares." Joy flooded through me. I wasn't an orphan. I had a family still. "Come on, we still have to get you settled into camp. I imagine that you'd like to sleep a little also." I nodded. "Climb onto my back so we can get there quicker," Chiron said while motioning to the horse part of his body, right where you would ride if he had been a full horse.

I jumped up onto the centaur and he galloped off in the direction Argus, Gleeson, and I had been headed before we got attacked. We passed the two of them a little ways up the road.

"I'm taking Tanner on to camp," Chiron informed them.

"Gotcha, see you later Chiron," Gleeson said smiling. Argus grinned too and waved us goodbye. Soon we were at the slope of a hill, which formed one side of a valley. At the top of the hill I saw a pine tree with what looked like a dragon curled around it.

"Is that a dragon?" I asked. "And, is that the Golden Fleece?" I also asked, noticing gold wool glittering on the lowest branch of the tree, right above the dragon's head.

"Yes and yes," Chiron replied.

"You guys are going to drive me insane," I sighed. Chiron chuckled and took us up and over the hill. A small crowd had gathered on the other side of the hill. More were coming from a ring of cabins shaped into the omega shape.

"Campers, please welcome Tanner Durst, the child of Ares!" Chiron shouted. Cheers and applause erupted from the crowd that had already formed. From the crowd stepped a person I never thought I would see again. It was a face I would never forget. It was Chris Durst, my long lost brother.


End file.
